Title:
When gender doesn't match the crime: jury bias in cases of insanity
Author:
Kristyn L. Kamke
Thesis Advisor:
Marianna E. Carlucci
Committee Member:
Beth A. Kotchick
Committee Member:
Matthew W. Kirkhart
Committee Member:
James Buckley
Committee Member:
Frank Golom
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2015
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
born digital
Abstract:
The current study investigated the relation between defendant gender and jury decisions, like verdict choice and sentencing, when the defendant pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. It was expected that certain aspects of crimes, like the victim or the method of killing, would be more strongly associated with a defendant of a particular gender, further impacting results. Five hundred and seventy-six participants, recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk, were deemed eligible for analysis. They were randomly assigned to eight different groups, each reading a vignette describing a murder case in which defendant gender (female, male), relationship to victim (parent, stranger), and method of killing (smothering, shooting) were manipulated. Participants gave a verdict of guilty, not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI), and sentenced the defendant to prison or a mental health facility. It was predicted that women would receive less harsh verdicts and less severe prison sentences than men. In addition, it was predicted that when defendants killed gender-congruent victims (i.e. son for women and stranger for men), they would receive less harsh verdicts and less severe prison sentences. Lastly, it was predicted that when defendants used gender-congruent methods of killing (i.e. smoothing for women and shooting for men), they would receive less harsh verdicts and less severe prison sentences. Defendant gender was not a significant predictor of verdict choice, but with male defendants receiving more NGRI verdicts. In addition, there was no significant interaction between defendant gender and victim type for verdict choice. There was also no support for an interaction between defendant gender and method of killing for verdict choice. Victim type, political affiliation, attributed responsibility to the defendant, and attributed responsibility of the defendant's mental iii iv GENDER, JURY BIAS, AND THE INSANITY DEFENSE illness were found to be predictors of verdict choice. There was no support for a relation between defendant gender and prison sentence, nor was there support for a significant interaction between defendant gender and victim type for prison sentence. There was a marginally significant interaction between defendant gender and method of killing on prison sentence, with defendants who used gender-congruent methods receiving less harsh sentences. Victim type, method of killing, one's own diagnosis of a mental illness, and the degree to which the participant blamed the defendant were also related to prison sentence. Exploratory analyses revealed defendant gender, the interaction between defendant gender and victim type, and defendant blame as related to mental health sentences. Responsibility of the defendant's mental illness was also related to sentence length in general. These results suggest is not a significant factor in jury decisions in insanity cases. It seems that participant attitudes about criminal responsibility and mental illness are most important in influencing jury decisions. Extra-legal factors seem to be influential in jury decisions and must explored further to ensure the fairest treatment for mentally ill defendants, as a prison may be dangerous and inappropriate for these people. In addition, this study suggests there are incorrect beliefs about criminal responsibility and mental illness in the public that must be addressed.
Subject:
Electronic dissertations
Degree:
Master of Science
Level:
Master
Discipline:
Clinical Psychology
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online.
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Identifier:
KamkeKL-15
